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Union formation is an intergenerational process involving both young adults and their parents. This chapter examines the many factors in the parental generation influencing the entrance of young adults into cohabitation and marriage. It then looks at the parental explanatory factors from six substantive domains, each with several dimensions: family organization; family immigration and farm background; parental socio-economic standing; religion; maternal marital experience; and parental childbearing. The chapter discusses specific ways these dimensions of the parental family can influence...

Union formation is an intergenerational process involving both young adults and their parents. This chapter examines the many factors in the parental generation influencing the entrance of young adults into cohabitation and marriage. It then looks at the parental explanatory factors from six substantive domains, each with several dimensions: family organization; family immigration and farm background; parental socio-economic standing; religion; maternal marital experience; and parental childbearing. The chapter discusses specific ways these dimensions of the parental family can influence young adult children directly as well as indirectly, through other factors in both the first and second generations. It analyzes parental influences on several dimensions of the union-formation process: the total union-formation rate that treats marriage and cohabitation as equivalent contrasts to being single, and the rates of entrance into marriage and cohabitation with each union status treated as an independent alternative to being single.